I hope Fellaini never plays in England again
HOW did they get the same bans? One man deliberately swings an elbow, knowing full well the damage that can be caused. The other grabs a clump of hair. Both, somehow, end up with three-match suspensions.
The more I look at the punishments Marouane Fellaini and Robert Huth received, the less I understand the Football Association’s decision. Huth, a giant in Leicester’s fairytale, misses his side’s victory parade for an incident you associate with a school playground.
Yet Fellaini could end up playing in the FA Cup Final. Can pulling someone’s hair cause the same damage as a flailing elbow? No. Not in a million years.
It can’t be right that he will be available for Manchester United’s big day against Crystal Palace on May 21. My personal hope is that we would never see him playing in the Premier League again.
Three games is not a sentence that will prove a deterrent to Fellaini. He’s a repeat offender and it’s gone beyond the point now where people can attempt to defend him by saying he is a tall lad who is using his arms for leverage.
Look at the incident with Huth again: Fellaini takes a glance around and sees where Huth is before swinging. Yes, he may have been provoked, but he knew what he was doing. Had he connected firmly, the defender could have been left with a broken cheek or jaw.
Former Tottenham captain Gary Mabbutt would testify to that. Back in November 1993, he was left with a fractured skull and needed a plate inserted into his face to hold his eye socket together after John Fashanu smashed his elbow into him during a game against Wimbledon.
Yet should we be surprised it was Fellaini again? No. He argued back in March that he ‘doesn’t want to elbow someone, only defend himself’ but that doesn’t hold any credibility because he has been involved in too many incidents.
What happened when United faced Liverpool in the Europa League? He escaped any kind of retrospective punishment for elbowing Emre Can at Anfield in the first leg on March 10 — but then seven days later did exactly the same thing at Old Trafford, only this time Dejan Lovren was on the receiving end.
When the Belgian arrived in England, as Everton’s record £15million signing in 2008, he was booked five times in his first two months. The initial assumption was to put it down to exuberance, awkwardness and immaturity. But here we are eight years on and he hasn’t changed whatsoever.
The figures are damning. He’s been booked 62 times in all competitions during his time in England and picked up a further three red cards. He has served 15 matches in bans, including three for a head-butt on Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross when he was at Everton that enraged David Moyes.
I hated playing against Fellaini. You knew from the word go you had to keep your wits because of his aggression. In one Merseyside derby, TV cameras showed me telling the ref to ‘watch Fellaini’s elbows’ — he always featured in our team-talks because he was so awkward.
He’s a menace in the worst possible sense. I don’t use that term lightly but he’s not a Manchester United player in any shape or form. I was never convinced he would fit in at Old Trafford when he left Goodison Park and have never been given reason to change my mind. Absolutely not United standard.
It was significant to see Louis van Gaal raise the issue of Fellaini having to control his temper. The player isn’t learning and is a danger to others.
For the next three games, that threat will be removed. But afterwards? Who knows?
I can’t believe he still has a chance to end his season at Wembley when he should be banned for longer. Personally, I hope we don’t see him — or his elbows — in England again.